[TowerTalk] Triband tests

Reflector crew. . .
Just a thought on the triband testing thread. I work in the land mobile
business (for Motorola) and have had my fair share of experience over the
years with antennas used in our industry (which, obviously, are radically
different than our HF antennas). While we don't build many antennas
ourselves (leave that for others who have that core competency), we do test
them, sometimes extensively.
While I have not been involved much with the testing myself, I'm aware of
the procedures, results, etc. Our testing methods are not all that
different than those used by K7LXC and company although we do "A/B" test
antennas. Steve's methods, while not necessarily yielding totally accurate
numbers in an absolute sense, should yield reasonably accurate numbers in a
comparative sense. I would guess easily within a db.
In the land mobile world, our only concern with antenna performance is
radiation focused on the horizon. Obviously, the more the better since our
only mode of propagation is ground wave.. This validates our goal of
maximum radiation on the horizon. It also validates us using two antennas
at reasonable heights above ground level (at least high enough to have
fresnel clearance).
Our situation in the HF world is completely different. If you have two
stations (a few thousand feet or a mile apart) with antennas at reasonable
distances off the ground (say 50 or 100'), it would seem to me that you're
measuring the ground wave capability of the antenna (which does little or
nothing toward working most DX). I'm not sure how one would go about
measuring the gain of a given HF antenna at reasonable launch angles (say 10
to 40 degrees). . . but the methods used as I understand them, aren't going
to evaluate this aspect of performance.
Who cares what the ground wave gain performance is? Am I missing something
here??? Perhaps so (I don't claim to be an antenna design engineer).
73 to all. . . Dave
W0FLS
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